Lifeless Rose
by Topaz Fox
Summary: Larxene is slowly dying by the hand of a certain young warrior. In these final few flashes of agony, she reflects on her short life and the horrible pain that came with it...


(Hey there, everyone! Topaz speaking. I present you with my first--and probably only--KH: COM fanfic. I felt like I had to write one, being a huge Kingdom Hearts fan and all. Please don't be too harsh...this was written on a whim...(cowers behind a rock) R&R, if you please. Enjoy! --Topaz Fox)

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Kingdom Hearts plots, games, characters or anything like that.**

Larxene stood panting before the young warrior and his friends. She was beyond saving: her eyes were painfully bloodshot and her back arched like a cat's. Explosions of pain, fear, anger drew each muscle tight across the bone. The snippy little blonde who had once worn that black cloak was gone. In her place was a beast.

She gripped her weapons, foot-long steel claws, tight as reasons. In this snug void before obliteration, they were her lifelines, her excuses. She crossed them over her chest and blocked a blow from the young warrior. Sparks flew into the ill white air. Larxene parried the attack, managing to catch one edge of a steel claw on Sora's jacket, tearing it slightly.

There were no wounds on Larxene's body. Members of the Organization did not bleed; it was simply a law of nature. Oh, sure, Larxene had tried to bleed many times. In the heat of this failing battle, beads of sweat slid down her forehead and planted a memory in her skull.

_"Why isn't there blood?" She had gotten frantic. The knife was a silver blur, flicking and flashing in and out of her skin. Desperately, she checked each cut for any sign of blood, any sign of life, but there was none. She hacked a bit of flesh away from her arm, ignoring the streaks of pain that roared through her brain like white lightning._

_The bit of flesh floated down to the floor, resembling a leaf. Larxene picked it up and turned it over and over in her hands. It was completely skin-colored, monotone as putty. There was none of the poppy red Larxene had been praying for._

_She sank down to the floor. "Why can't I bleed?" she whispered. "Why am I so unnatural…?"_

Now Larxene flew at the fighter before her, claws bared. The boy bolted to the side and Larxene found herself face to face with a white pillar. There were many such pillars in Castle Oblivion, each squared at the top and spilling over with a froth of white roses. In fact, the theme was quite common; white marble roses decorated much of the Castle, their stiff petals faking softness, each blossom an illusion of innocence.

All of them were so pretty, so mysterious, and yet so cold…

Roses. The flower of love. "What a joke," Larxene muttered under her breath. "Roses…love…all lies." Nobody loved _her_. In fact, nobody even liked her. She was the useless one, the annoying one, the ditz, the bitch, the _girl_. She had hoped to be something, but she had turned out to just be another dark brick in the wall. Overcome with fury, she threw herself at the pillar and shattered it with a thrust of her claws. The white dust and shards exploded around her, revealing the roses' true form.

Plain white stone, blank and common.

Taking advantage of Larxene's insanity, the young warrior loped up from behind and raised his weapon. Larxene could feel him there, but she did not turn around in time. As she felt her leg crunch and break under the metal blade, another memory shot into her consciousness.

_"I love you, Axel." The words had not meant to come out, but refused to be stifled. She couldn't bear it any longer. To have him always hanging around, talking to her…she couldn't bear not telling him the truth._

_He looked at her in mild shock. She noticed how his eyes were polished and hard, like obsidian, and they showed no traces of emotion. It sent shivers down her spine._

_His mass of spiky red hair swayed a bit as he turned away. "I don't know…what to say. Larxene…" He turned back to her. What glinted in his eyes was the closest thing Larxene had ever seen to pain. "The thing is…well…we can't love anyone. None of us."_

_Larxene was taken aback. "What?" she said, her high-pitched voice cracking. "W-…why?" He turned away again. "We're not, uh, really what you would call…human. We're closer to machines. We're only here for one purpose, and you know what THAT is. We can't…" His voice failed a little. He turned around to face her again, and she saw that the polished hardness was back. "We can't really do anything we weren't intended to. We don't die. We just…disappear. We can't cry…we can't love…we can't even bleed. So you see…"_

_He stopped in the middle of his sentence as he saw the look on Larxene's face. All the mischief and cheerfulness had drained away. She was much paler now, a shadow of herself. Her face looked as afraid and white as the marble roses on the walls._

_She didn't say anything but this: "But…I love you. I know I do. You must be wrong…" With those words, she spun on her heel and ran out of the room._

_As she took the knife and rested its blade on her arm, she was startled to find that no tears came. All this emotion and no tears…but no matter. "I'll prove him wrong," she spat, and dug the knife into her skin._

Suddenly, Larxene snapped back into reality as she realized her arm was being hit. Electrocutions of agony wrapped her limb, and then she felt nothing. Her now-useless arm flopped to her side. The claw it had been holding clattered to the floor and slid a few feet away.

It was obvious she was going to be eliminated.

Larxene gave in to the pain that numbed her leg and sank to the floor. The white marble was hard, so hard, so solid and real beneath the body she wasn't even sure was hers anymore…

"Larxene." It was the voice of the warrior boy. He stood glaring down at her with sapphire eyes. She felt something click in the back of her mind as she recognized the same cold look of Axel's eyes. They were alike, those two. The idea brought a smile to Larxene's thin lips.

"This is the end for you, Larxene." Hardly were the words uttered before the boy's weapon arced up and fell down across Larxene's body. She didn't feel the pain at all, if there even was any. She just felt her spirit slipping away in sorry shreds. Larxene laughed. "You win, Sora…but Marluxia will get you once and for all…"

Secretly, she hoped Sora would defeat Marluxia. She hoped they would all be destroyed, each and every member of the Organization. She hated them for what they had done to her.

The thought flitted from her mind as her senses seeped away. _This is it_, she thought. _Here I go…_

Finally, her body vanished, taken by an invisible wave. Her last breath sighed away as she escaped Castle Oblivion, the stronghold of chaos, the unyielding garden of the dead white roses.

-Fin-


End file.
